152 



TETRAONID^ : GROUSE. 



" Partridges," the real Partridge of the United States 

 being termed a Quail. In the Southern States the case 

 is still further complicated by calling Bonasa a " Pheas- 

 ant." This confusion in nomenclature is an inheritance 

 from the earliest English settlers of our country, who 

 naturally called any bird new to them by a name suggested 

 by its real or fancied resemblance to some European 

 species with which they were familiar. Most of the 

 error resulting from such practice ceases in the course 



Fig. 33. — Head of Ruffed Grouse. Natural size. 



of time to be mischievous, or even disappears, as in the 

 case of our Robin, Turdus migratorijis , which familiar 

 bird no one confounds with the European " Robin Red- 

 breast," the very existence of which is little more than 

 a memory of nursery tales with most persons in this 

 country. The matter stands very differently, however, 

 with our game birds of the gallinaceous tribe, the con- 

 fusion of nomenclature being so hopeless that natural- 

 ists, after repeatedly returning to the charge, generally 

 give up in dispair of doing away with it. 



The most remarkable trait in the disposition of the 

 Ruffed Grouse is that which confirms the bird in the 



